What a waste.

Disclaimer : I don't own neither of the intellectual properties used her (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Castle) and use them only for entertainment purposes.

"What a waste."

Those three simple words endlessly circled his mind as he sat in from of the news reports on his state-of-the-art flat screen, his hand gently stroking Alexis' hairs. His teen girl had cried herself to sleep, cuddled against his side, another part of her childish innocence burned away forever by the cruelties of the world. Today had been a grim remembrance that even if she was matures far beyond her age, his daughter wasn't truly an adult. At fifteen, she simply hadn't experienced enough of life to count as one.

A rapid glance at the looping words at the bottom of the screen told him that the news story hadn't changed. Not that he expected it to at so late an hour. Institutionalized. Arson charges. Possible murder accusations. Terrorism allegations. Grisly terms for a grisly situation. No wonder Alexis had been so distraught earlier. He himself, an adult whose profession led to delve in the dirtiest parts of the human psyche, had difficulties reconciling the beast portrayed by the media to that dynamic little girl that had once been amongst his daughter's best friends. And he had an advantage over Alexis. Contrary to her, he had long expected a disaster. Not one of this scope, no, but a disaster none the less.

Her presence had brought so much joy in their life at first. He could still see her, that unyielding elementary schoolgirl, smaller than his own daughter, knees and elbows always scraped: a little over-achiever just like his own. Where Alexis fancied intellectual or artistic pursuits, she favoured physical ones. She was quite good too. She could have become... she should have become a world-renowned athlete.

"What a waste."

In gymnastics, diving and figure skating, she had faced one obstacle: her parents. It had been maddening. Her Olympic dreams, combined with her stubbornness, pushed her to new heights of success in her athletic endeavours, only to be shot down by her parents' selfishness. The moment the time requirements for her practices and competitions took a toll on their so-very-important social life, they complained and nagged. Since she wanted their approval more than everything, she'd fake a loss of interest. Times and times again, that scenario repeated itself.

Those two... Those two egocentric... No words were vile enough to Rick's taste to label them. In his own personal ranking of the drudges of humanity, the pair of her so-called parents neared the bottom, barely ranking above religious terrorists, sexual predators and child abusers, having witnessed the slow transformation their lack of virtues had achieved on their own child. They turned a little girl he would once have readily adopted as his own into the newest house name for teenage monstrosity.

The first signs had been subtle. She had become withdrawn, loss some of her fire. Her academic grades had dropped from the top. Her conversations had gotten shallower. The next step in her decline had gained her the approval she craved. She made the pursuit of popularity her main priority. Who she talked to, what she wore, what she accomplished. One goal started dictating every single act in public: increasing her social standing in her school's pecking order, cost be damned. When bullying was added to that equation, Rick judged it was going too far. He chose to remove Alexis from both that dangerous friendship and his flighty ex-wife Meredith. He had moved back to New York soon after, his tween princess with him.

Had it been the best decision? He didn't know. He didn't really care. He did what he had to protect the dearest person in his life.

The pictures on the television changed as he mused and grieved, marking the turn of another hour of live coverage. The words "Tragedy at Hemery High." were titled in tasteless bloodied letters near the bottom of the screen, over a smaller "Main suspect apprehended." A photo of said suspect, fifteen years old Buffy Summer, took most of the screen. Rick turned the television off.

"What a waste."

This is one that really escaped my control. Originally, it was supposed to be the start of a small redemption story. Castle had known Buffy through Alexis, had lost faith in her after she joined the popular crowd and suddenly felt guilty when his distraught daughter tells him Buffy's been institutionalized. He would have rescued Buffy and worked hard to gain her trust, to the point where at the end she would have opened up about being the slayer. For this plot to work, I had to bring events from Buffy's backstory and the movie to our current world to better fit Castle. It was my downfall. I started speculating on the media reception of an event of the scope of what happened in her high school and my plot crumbled under me. What I could salvage of my ideas is in this little dark fic.